OPM means Other People’s Money and it’s a great scam if you can figure out how to do it. You get the glory and someone else pays for it – sweet! Well, a number of developers figured it out. When a developer builds out their homes or condos, they can insert into the covenants and/or deeds a requirement that when the property is sold, a fee must be paid to the  developer’s charitable foundation.

The Lennar complex of condos (between Telephone Rd and Thille, a couple of blocks west of Victoria) has such a deal. Looking at a previous deal we did there, $202.50 went to the Lennar Charitable Housing Foundation. This scam is getting so prevalent that the Residential Purchase Agreement we Realtors use in submitting an offer just added a line item under “Other Costs” called a “private transer fee” for just this sort of thing.

Wanna start your own foundation? Just build some homes!